Information processing apparatus recognizing instruction by touch input, control method thereof, and storage medium

ABSTRACT

An information processing apparatus includes an obtainment unit configured to obtain an input position input to an input area, a display control unit configured to scroll at least a portion of an image displayed on a display screen in response to movement of an input position obtained by the obtainment unit, and a recognition unit configured to, if a shape of at least a portion of a locus constituted of input positions input after a first condition is satisfied forms a predetermined figure among movement loci of the input positions obtained by the obtainment unit, recognize an instruction corresponding to the figure, wherein, the display control unit does not scroll the image in response to movement of an input position input after the first condition is satisfied.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present disclosure generally relates to information processing and,more particularly, to an information processing apparatus recognizinginstruction by touch input, a control method thereof, a storage medium,and to a technique for recognizing an operation based on input of aposition.

2. Description of the Related Art

Recently, touch input apparatuses have become widely used which obtain,in response to a touch on a screen with a user's finger or a stylus, Xand Y coordinates of a touched position as an input value and recognizea touch operation by the user based on the input value. One of commontouch operations is a scroll operation for moving an image by followingmovement of an input position. Further, some touch input apparatuses areprovided with a function of recognizing a hand-drawn figure whichrecognizes, if a shape of a movement locus of input positions coincideswith a predetermined shape, that the movement locus is input of acommand corresponded to the predetermined shape in advance.

If the same screen can receive both of input by the scroll operationfollowing the movement of the input position and input by the hand-drawnfigure for recognizing a shape of the movement locus of the inputpositions, the movement of the input position needs to be recognized bydistinguishing which movement is intended for.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-146556 describes atechnique which sets two areas on a screen and determines whether toexecute scroll following the movement of the input position or execute agesture operation by recognizing a shape of the movement locus accordingto which area the input position is included in.

According to the method described in Japanese Patent ApplicationLaid-Open No. 2006-146556, a user is limited to a position to touchaccording to an intended operation. However, there is a position easy ordifficult to touch for the user depending on contents of a displayedimage or a size of the screen, therefore, the limitation to the positionto touch may decrease operation efficiency.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, an informationprocessing apparatus includes an obtainment unit configured to obtain aninput position input to an input area, a display control unit configuredto scroll at least a portion of an image displayed on a display screenin response to movement of an input position obtained by the obtainmentunit, and a recognition unit configured to, if a shape of at least aportion of a locus constituted of input positions input after a firstcondition is satisfied forms a predetermined figure among movement lociof the input positions obtained by the obtainment unit, recognize aninstruction corresponding to the figure, wherein, the display controlunit does not scroll the image in response to movement of an inputposition input after the first condition is satisfied.

Further features of the present disclosure will become apparent from thefollowing description of exemplary embodiments with reference to theattached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A to 1C are examples illustrating an external appearance andconfigurations of an information processing apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing flow forrecognizing a touch operation.

FIGS. 3A to 3C illustrate states of obtaining input positions to be atrigger to restrain scroll display.

FIGS. 4A to 4C are timing charts illustrating flows for obtaining aseries of input positions.

FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate examples of scroll operations.

FIGS. 6A to 6C illustrate examples of gesture operations.

FIGS. 7A to 7F illustrate examples of hand-drawn figures recognized bygesture operations.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing flow forrecognizing a touch operation.

FIGS. 9A and 9B are flowcharts illustrating examples of processing flowsfor recognizing shapes of loci.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing flow forrecognizing a shape of locus.

FIGS. 11A to 11E illustrate examples of loci constituted of inputpositions obtained by operation examples.

FIGS. 12A to 12E are timing charts illustrating flows for obtaining aseries of input positions in operation examples.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Various exemplary embodiments for implementing the present disclosurewill be described in detail below with reference to the attacheddrawings. It is to be noted that the exemplary embodiments describedbelow are merely examples for specifically implementing the presentinvention and are not intended to limit the present disclosure.

FIGS. 1A to 1C are examples illustrating an external appearance, ahardware configuration, and a software configuration of an informationprocessing apparatus to which a first exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure can be applied.

FIG. 1A illustrates the external appearance of a portable terminal as anexample of an information processing apparatus 100 viewed from a frontand a side of a screen. In FIG. 1A, a housing 101 surrounds an outerperiphery of an input area 102 and is made of synthetic resins, metals,and the like. The input area 102 is a target area where a user touchesas a touch target and receives a touch input used for an operation inputto the information processing apparatus 100. According to the presentexemplary embodiment, the input area 102 is configured with a touchpanel display in which a touch sensor is disposed on a display screenportion of a liquid crystal display as a display unit. The displayscreen is an interface displaying various images for operating theinformation processing apparatus 100 or other apparatuses connected tothe information processing apparatus 100. According to the presentexemplary embodiment, the input area 102 has resolution of 480 [dot]*640[dot], and position information can be managed as a coordinate planeregarding an upper left of a sheet surface as an origin. According tothe present exemplary embodiment, a portable terminal illustrated inFIG. 1A is described below as an example of the information processingapparatus 100. As used herein, the term “unit” generally refers to anycombination of software, firmware, hardware, or other component, such ascircuitry, that is used to effectuate a purpose.

In the information processing apparatus 100 according to the presentexemplary embodiment, when a finger or the like is slidingly moved whiletouching on the display screen, at least a portion of a displayed imagecan be scrolled by following the movement. This operation is called ascroll operation. In a scroll operation, an operation target image canbe slidingly moved by a movement amount based on a change amount ofcoordinates of touched positions before and after the movementregardless of a shape of a movement locus of the touched positions. Theoperation target image to be moved may be an entire image displayed onthe display screen or a limited portion in the displayed image, such asa touched image and a content in a touched window. In the followingdescriptions, a fact that a touched position is changed by a user movinghis/her finger or a stylus (hereinafter, referred to as an operationobject) is described as “a touched position (an input position) ismoved” for short.

According to the present exemplary embodiment, the informationprocessing apparatus 100 can receive a scroll operation and also receivea command input by drawing a predetermined figure by hand. Thisoperation is called a gesture operation, a hand drawing gestureoperation, a touched gesture operation, and the like. As an example of acommand input by a hand-drawn figure, when a locus with a shape of atriangular mark is drawn on a screen in which only one image isdisplayed, a command to instruct screen transition to a list screen of aplurality of thumbnail images can be input. Further, when a locus with ashape of a cross mark is drawn on a screen in which one image isdisplayed, a command to instruct deletion of the displayed image can beinput. Further, when a locus with a shape of a circle mark is drawn on ascreen in which one image is displayed, attribute information indicatingthat the displayed image is a favorite can be added thereto. Thecommands by the hand-drawn figures described above are examples, andvarious instruction contents can be corresponded to loci with variousshapes. According to the present exemplary embodiment, correspondencerelationships between predetermined figure shapes and contents ofcommands are stored as a dictionary in advance, however, the dictionarycan be updated by a user operation and a download via a network. In thepresent specification described below, “locus” is a collective term of aplurality of input positions which are input by sliding a finger and thelike while touching and connected with one another in the input order.However, like a cross mark, when second and subsequent strokes are drawnby releasing a touch in the middle of input, each locus is individuallycalled a “stroke”. In other words, a triangular mark is a locusconstituted of one stroke, and a cross mark is loci constituted of twostrokes.

As described above, the information processing apparatus 100 accordingto the present exemplary embodiment can receive, by the same screen,both of an operation regardless of a shape of the movement locus of thetouched positions such as a scroll operation and an operation in which ashape of the movement locus of the touched positions has a meaning suchas a gesture operation. To receive the both operations by the samescreen means that both operations arbitrarily input to a screen beingcontinuously displayed can be received without switching screens ormodes. It is troublesome for a user if an image is scrolled and movedwhile inputting an operation in which a shape of the movement locus ofthe touched positions has a meaning, since a movement amount of thetouched position becomes difficult to understand or an operation targetimage becomes difficult to identify. Therefore, according to the presentexemplary embodiment, among movement loci of detected touched positions,a touch portion to be a target of shape recognition processing islimited to a portion of a locus constituted of touched positions movedafter a long touch is input immediately after the start of the touch. Inaddition, while the input position is moved after the long touch isinput (while the movement of the touched position is performed with theintention to draw a hand-drawn figure), the image is controlled not tobe subjected to the scroll display if the touched position is moved. Along touch is that a state in which a movement amount of a touchedposition is kept small and the touched position can be regarded asremaining stationary is continued for a predetermined time period.

An operation regardless of a shape of a movement locus of touchedpositions to be distinguished from input of a hand-drawn figure is notlimited to scroll. For example, a pinch operation for instructingmagnification and reduction of an image by changing a distance betweentwo touched positions and a rotation operation for rotating an image byrelatively rotating two touched positions can be included. Reception ofa scroll operation is described below as an example of an operation foradding a change to a displayed image based on not a shape of themovement locus of the touched positions but a change amount ofcoordinates regardless of a shape of the movement locus of the touchedpositions.

FIG. 1B is an example of a block diagram illustrating a hardwareconfiguration of the information processing apparatus 100 to which thepresent exemplary embodiment can be applied. In FIG. 1B, the informationprocessing apparatus 100 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 111.The information processing apparatus 100 further includes a read onlymemory (ROM) 112 and a hard disk drive (HDD) 113. According to thepresent exemplary embodiment, the CPU 111 reads and executes a controlprogram stored in the ROM 112 and the HDD 113 to control each device.The control program is a control program for causing the informationprocessing apparatus 100 to execute various operations indicated inflowcharts and the like described below. The ROM 112 stores the controlprograms and various data pieces used in the programs. A random accessmemory (RAM) 114 includes a work area for the above-described programsof the CPU 111, a data save area when error processing is performed, aload area for the above-described control program, and the like. The HDD113 stores the above-described various programs and various data pieces.According to the present exemplary embodiment, an image group such aspictures to be displayed on a screen as an operation target is stored inthe HDD 113.

A touch panel display 115 is a device serving as a touch sensor and thelike for receiving information of a user operation on the input area 102and a display screen for outputting display. The touch panel display 115detects a touched portion when the input area 102 is touched with ahuman finger and the like and identifies the touched position as acoordinate point on a coordinate plane defined on the input area 102.When the touched portion has an area, coordinates of its center ofgravity of a center point is identified. In the following descriptions,the relevant point is referred to as an input position. An inputposition can be detected with respect to each of one or more touchedportions which are regarded as independent from one another among one ormore touched portions detected on the touch panel. For example, when thetouch panel is touched with a plurality of fingers, there is a pluralityof independent touched portions, and thus a plurality of input positionsare detected. In other words, the touch panel display 115 according tothe present exemplary embodiment can perform multi-touch detection anddetect all of one or more input positions instructed at the same time.For a detection method of a touch, various types of touch panels can beused, such as a resistive film type, a capacitance type, an infraredtype, an ultrasonic type, an acoustic wave type, a vibration detectiontype, and the like. In addition, whether an input target surface istouched or not is detected by a device which can detect a position in athree-dimensional space, such as a distance image sensor and a stereocamera, and position information defined on the target surface may beobtained. Further, position (proximity position) information at aposition in a proximity state obtained by a detection unit which candetect position information of a user's finger which does not touch butis close to a surface of the information processing apparatus can beused as an input position. According to the present exemplaryembodiment, an input position is detected as a single coordinate pointbut not limited to this. An entire touched portion having an area may beregarded as an input position, or, for example, the input area 102 isdivided into touch areas in an array, and area identificationinformation indicating in which area a touch is detected can be regardedas an input position.

An input/output interface (I/F) 116 is an interface used for obtaininginput information and outputting various information pieces from and toan external device connected via the network and the like. A bus 117 isused for transferring an address signal instructing a component as acontrol target of the CPU 111, a control signal controlling eachcomponent, and data exchanged between each component. Theabove-described control programs may be stored in advance in the ROM 112or the HDD 113 or may be received from an external device via thenetwork if necessary and stored in the ROM 112 or the HDD 113.

FIG. 1C is an example of a block diagram illustrating a softwareconfiguration of the information processing apparatus 100. Each functionunit is realized by the CPU 111 expanding a program stored in the ROM112 on the RAM 114 and executing processing according to each flowchartdescribed below. Further, for example, when the hardware is configuredas an alternative of the software processing using the CPU 111,arithmetic units and circuits corresponding to processing of eachfunction unit described herein may be configured.

An obtainment unit 121 obtains information regarding an input positiontouched with a user's finger or a stylus on the input area 102 based ona signal notified from the touch sensor of the touch panel display 115.However, the obtainment of the input position includes a case when theuser's finger, the stylus, and the like are not necessarily in a contactstate with the input area and information of a position (proximityposition) indicated as a proximity state is obtained. The touch sensorused in the present exemplary embodiment notifies of informationregarding the input position one each in turn even if a plurality ofinput positions is touched at the same time (namely, a multi-touchedstate). The notified information regarding the input position is storedin the RAM 114. The information regarding the input position includes,for example, the coordinate information indicating the input position inthe input area 102, a detected time when the input position is detected,identification (ID) indicating the detected order, and a touch event.

The touch event is information indicating a type of touch information tobe notified. According to the present exemplary embodiment, when thetouch information corresponding to a case that an operation object newlytouches the input area or a case that the touch is continued isnotified, an event “TOUCH” is notified. Further, when the touchinformation corresponding to a case that the operation object isreleased from the touch panel is notified, a touch event “RELEASE” isnotified. Release of the input position means that, for example, auser's finger operating on the touch panel display 115 is separatedtherefrom, and the touch with the finger is no longer detected. In otherwords, “RELEASE” is information indicating that the touch is no longerdetected. In the case of the touch event “TOUCH”, information to benotified includes the coordinate information indicating the inputposition touched with the operation object. In the case of the touchevent “RELEASE”, the operation object does not touch the input area, andthus information about the coordinates of the touched position is notobtained. However, according to the present exemplary embodiment, theproximity position detected when or immediately after the “RELEASE”event is notified is obtained as a release position. According to thepresent exemplary embodiment, the touch event includes ID foridentifying the input position. When a touch panel which does not detectthe proximity position is used or the like, the coordinates of thetouched position detected immediately before the “RELEASE” event isnotified may be obtained as the release position. A coordinate detectionperiod of the sensor is sufficiently shorter as compared with movementof a human finger. Therefore, an error of the touched position detectedimmediately before actual release can be regarded as very small withrespect to an actual release position. An identifier associated with adetected order of the input position is used for the ID, so thatmanagement becomes easier when a plurality of input positions isdetected. According to the present exemplary embodiment, the obtainmentunit 121 detects the latest information of the input position based onthe ID and can detect that the input position is moved based on theinput position with the same ID is detected at a position different froma position previously detected. However, the present exemplaryembodiment may be applied to a detection system in which a touch event“MOVE” is notified when the touch information corresponding to a casewhen the input position with the same ID is detected at a positiondifferent from a position previously detected is notified.

An identification unit 122 identifies input position candidatesconstituting a hand-drawn figure in the movement locus of the obtainedinput positions based on the information regarding the input positionsobtained by the obtainment unit 121. In other words, the identificationunit 122 identifies a portion to be a target of processing forrecognizing a shape of the movement locus so as to interpret themovement locus as a command input among the movement loci of theobtained input positions. According to the present exemplary embodiment,the identification unit 122 determines that a long touch is input basedon the information obtained by the obtainment unit 121 and stored in theRAM 114 and identifies the input position input after the input of thelong touch as the input position to be a target of the processing forrecognizing the shape of the movement locus. In other words, it isidentified that the input position input after the input of the longtouch is not intended to a scroll operation but the input positioncandidate constituting a figure.

A recognition unit 123 identifies a shape of an input hand-drawn figurebased on information of the input position identified by theidentification unit 122 and information stored in advance as thedictionary 124, and recognizes the input hand-drawn figure as a commandinput corresponded to the identified shape in advance. However, if theidentification unit 122 identifies the input position as the inputposition candidate constituting the figure, there is a case that theinput position does not always coincide with the information in thedictionary 124, and a recognition result that a shape cannot berecognized is obtained. According to the present exemplary embodiment,the dictionary 124 is information in which shape information forming atriangular mark, a cross mark, and a circle mark is corresponded to acommand which can be instructed to the information processing apparatus100 and is stored in advance in the HDD 113 and read to the RAM 114 andreferred by the CPU 111.

A scroll control unit 125 controls whether to restrain the scrolldisplay following the movement of the input position according towhether the input position obtained by the obtainment unit 121 is to bea target of the shape recognition as a hand-drawn figure. According tothe present exemplary embodiment, if it is determined that a long touchis input in response to the processing by the identification unit 122,the scroll display is restrained, and the restraint is released duringwhen a long touch is not input or after recognition of the hand-drawnfigure is complete. When the scroll display is not restrained, thescroll control unit 125 identifies a movement amount of an image as ascroll operation target based on a change amount of the coordinates ofthe input position obtained by the obtainment unit 121 and notifies adisplay control unit 126 of the movement amount.

The display control unit 126 controls a content to be displayed on thedisplay screen by generating drawing data to which a result ofprocessing by each function unit executed in response to a useroperation is reflected and outputting the drawing data to the touchpanel display 115. For example, the display control unit 126 generatesdrawing data for displaying a response result of the informationprocessing apparatus 100 with respect to a command corresponding to theshape of the hand-drawn figure recognized by the recognition unit 123.Alternatively, the display control unit 126 performs scroll display of atarget image displayed in accordance with a notification from the scrollcontrol unit 125. A reception unit 127 receives a touch operation to agraphical user interface (GUI) screen displayed on the display screen.The GUI screen is an image including a display item such as an iconwhich can instruct issuance of a corresponding command when beingtouched. The reception unit 127 identifies a command instructed by thetouch operation based on the coordinates of the input position obtainedby the obtainment unit 121 and the position information of the displayitem on the screen and notifies each function unit related to theresponse of the identified command.

Next, a processing flow for recognizing a touch operation according tothe present exemplary embodiment is described with reference to aflowchart illustrated in FIG. 2. According to the present exemplaryembodiment, a series of processing described below is started inresponse to that the information processing apparatus 100 is turned onand repeated at a predetermined period while the information processingapparatus 100 is activated. However, a trigger to start the series ofprocessing is not limited to this, and the processing for recognizing atouch input may be started in response to release of a lock of theapparatus, a start of a specific application, or completion of drawingof a specific image on the display screen.

In step S201, the obtainment unit 121 obtains information regarding theinput position instructed on the input area 102 based on a signalnotified from the touch panel display 115. The obtainment unit 121obtains information regarding the coordinates of the input position andthe detected time based on the information obtained from the touchsensor and stores the information in the RAM 114.

Next, in step S202, the identification unit 122 determines whether along touch is detected based on the information regarding the inputposition stored in the RAM 114. According to the present exemplaryembodiment, the identification unit 122 determines whether that a longtouch is input immediately after the start of the touch can bedetermined based on the latest input position (the last obtained inputposition). A “long touch” is a term describing that an input state ismaintained for a certain period, and it does not matter whether apressing force is applied to the input position in the long touch.Generally, a condition of determining “whether a long touch is input” isthat the input position remains in a predetermined range for apredetermined time length. The predetermined range is, for example, aninside of a circle with a radius d1 [dot] centering on the coordinatesof the input position initially touched.

A determination method of a long touch is described with reference toFIG. 3A and FIG. 4A. FIG. 3A illustrates a series of the coordinates ofthe input positions obtained during a long touch, and FIG. 4A is atiming chart indicating timings when the input positions are obtainedduring the long touch. In FIG. 3A, a position p1 is an input positioninitially touched at the start of the touch, and the inside of thecircle with the radius d1 centering on the position p1 (a circleindicated by a dashed line) is regarded as the predetermined range. Inthis regard, a duration time of input for defining a long touch is T[msec]. When the duration time T is expressed as t2−t1<T<t3−t1, in thecase of the example in FIG. 3A, it is determined that the long touch isdetected at a time point when an input position p3 is obtained at a timet3. Regarding a method for defining a predetermined range, thepredetermined range is not limited to a range of a circle with aspecified radius, and, for example, may be a rectangular range in whicha change amount of each of the X coordinate and the Y coordinate isincluded within d2 [dot].

If the input position is moved earlier than a lapse of the predeterminedtime from the start of the touch, it is determined that a long touch isnot input. According to the present exemplary embodiment, in such acase, it is regarded that the input position is highly likely to bemoved for a touch operation regardless of a shape of the movement locusof the input positions, such as scroll. In addition, according to thepresent exemplary embodiment, in the case that input is continuedwithout being released after it is at least once determined that thelong touch is input immediately after the start of the touch, if thelatest coordinates are moved from the coordinates of the input positionimmediately before that, a determination result in step S202 will be NO.The fact that the long touch is input immediately after the start of thetouch means that the long touch can be already determined before thelatest input position is obtained. According to the present exemplaryembodiment, it is regarded that movement in a state in which the inputposition is continuously detected without being released after the longtouch is input immediately after the start of the touch is highly likelymovement to input a hand-drawn figure. The identification unit 122identifies input positions as the input position candidates constitutinga hand-drawn figure as targets of the shape recognition processing andstored information thereof in the RAM 114.

If it is determined that the long touch is input immediately after thestart of the touch (YES in step S202), the processing proceeds to stepS203. Whereas if it is not determined that the long touch is inputimmediately after the start of the touch (NO in step S202), theprocessing proceeds to step S205.

In step S203, the scroll control unit 125 restrains execution ofprocessing for scrolling an image by following the movement of the inputposition. During the restraint of the scroll display, the scroll controlunit 125 notifies the display control unit 126 of not a signal forinstructing to slidingly move the image but an instruction to display ahand drawing input screen.

In step S204, the display control unit 126 generates and outputs drawingdata for causing the touch panel display 115 to display the hand drawinginput screen thereto. According to the present exemplary embodiment, agray area is displayed by overlapping on an original display content ofthe display screen as the hand drawing input screen so as to indicate toa user that a hand-drawn figure can be input. Accordingly, the user canrecognize that the information processing apparatus 100 is shifted to ahand drawing input mode for receiving a hand-drawn figure. Whendisplaying of the hand drawing input screen is complete, a series of theprocessing is terminated. The processing is repeated again from stepS201 while the information processing apparatus 100 is activated. Thegray area displayed in step S204 is a rectangular area with a gray-basedtransparent color, and it can be said that an area in which a graytransparent object is displayed in the front of the display screen. Asize of the gray area coincides with a maximum size of the displayscreen. In other words, it seems for a user that a screen becomesuniformly dark.

In step S205, the identification unit 122 determines whether the touchis released based on the information of the input position obtained bythe obtainment unit 121. More specifically, if a touch event “RELEASE”is obtained as the information regarding the latest input position, itis determined that the input position is released. If it is determinedthat the input position is released for the hand drawing input (YES instep S205), the processing proceeds to step S206. Whereas if it is notdetermined that the input position is released (NO in step S205), theprocessing proceeds to step S219.

Next, in step S206, the recognition unit 123 performs shape recognitionof a locus connecting the input positions in the input order based onthe information regarding the input position which is identified by theidentification unit 122 as the target of the shape recognitionprocessing and accumulated in the RAM 114. According to the presentexemplary embodiment, shape information pieces of loci, such as atriangular mark, a cross mark, and a circle mark, corresponding tocommands which can be instructed to the information processing apparatus100 are stored in advance in the dictionary 124. The recognition unit123 recognizes which shape stored in the dictionary 124 is regarded ascoincident with the locus connecting the input positions and identifiesthe shape regarded as being coincident. Specific contents of therecognition processing are describe below with reference to specificexamples illustrated in FIGS. 5A and 5B. In step S207, the recognitionunit 123 determines whether the shape corresponding to the input locusis identified from the information pieces stored in advance in thedictionary 124 by the recognition processing executed in step S206. Inother words, the recognition unit 123 determines whether the commandcorresponding to the input locus is present in the information piecesstored as the dictionary 124. If it is determined that the commandcorresponding to the input locus is present (YES in step S207), theprocessing proceeds to step S208. Whereas if it is determined that thecommand corresponding to the input locus is not present (NO in stepS207), the processing proceeds to step S214.

In step S208, the recognition unit 123 determines whether a GUI screenis present which is to be displayed on the display screen in response toa notification of the command corresponding to the input locus.According to the present exemplary embodiment, when a gesture with ashape of a cross mark corresponding to the deletion command of adisplayed image is input, a GUI screen is displayed for confirmingwhether to execute deletion of the image in response to the gesture. Forexample, a screen prompting a user to touch a “Yes” button or a “No”button is displayed. In contrast, when a gesture with a shape of atriangular mark for instructing the screen transition to the list screenof a plurality of thumbnail images is input, the command is immediatelyexecuted without displaying a GUI screen for confirmation.

If a GUI screen displayed in response to the command is present,correspondence information thereof is stored in advance in thedictionary 124. The recognition unit 123 perform determination withreference to the correspondence information. If it is determined thatthe GUI screen displayed in response to the command is present (YES instep S208), the processing proceeds to step S209. Whereas if it isdetermined that the GUI screen displayed in response to the command isnot present (NO in step S208), the processing proceeds to step S213.

In step S209, the display control unit 126 displays the GUI screencorresponding to the input hand-drawn figure in response to theinstruction notified from the recognition unit 123. On this occasion,the gray area on the display screen displayed in step S204 may bedeleted. For example, in the case of a cross mark, the display controlunit 126 generates an image to pop up a confirmation screen of whetherto delete the image and outputs the image to the touch panel display115.

Next, in step S210, the reception unit 127 receives a user operation onthe GUI screen displayed in step S209. For example, when theconfirmation screen of whether to execute deletion of the image isdisplayed, the user touches a “Yes” button when wanting to execute thedeletion and touches a “No” button when not wanting to execute thedeletion. The reception unit 127 identifies which button is touchedbased on the coordinates of the input position.

Next, in step S211, the reception unit 127 notifies each function unitin the CPU 111, such as the display control unit of the operationreceived in step S210, and each function unit executes responseprocessing to the user operation. For example, if the “Yes” button istouched on the confirmation screen of whether to execute deletion of theimage, the CPU 111 deletes the image displayed on the screen from theHDD 113. Whereas if the “No” button is touched, the image is notdeleted.

Next, in step S212, the scroll control unit 125 releases the restraintof the scroll display. If the input position detected after theprocessing in step S212 is moved with no long touch, the scroll controlunit 125 determines a movement amount of a target image of the scrolloperation based on a change amount of the coordinates and notifies thedisplay control unit 126 of the movement amount. If the gray area on thedisplay screen displayed in step S204 is still displayed at the timepoint of the processing in step S212, the display control unit 126deletes the gray area. The processing is repeated again from step S201while the information processing apparatus 100 is activated.

Whereas if it is determined as NO in step S208, the processing proceedsto step S213, and the recognition unit 123 recognizes that aninstruction command corresponded to the shape of the hand-drawn figurerecognized in step S206 is input. Subsequently, the various functionunits in the CPU 111 receiving the command notification input from therecognition unit 123 execute the response processing to the operationcommand corresponding to the input locus. For example, in the case thata locus of a triangular mark is input, the display control unit 126generates the drawing data for displaying the list screen of a pluralityof thumbnail images and outputs the drawing data to the touch paneldisplay 115.

In addition, if it is determined as NO in step S207, the processingproceeds to step S214, and the identification unit 122 determineswhether the number of strokes constituting the locus of the inputpositions identified as the target of the shape recognition processingis a maximum number of the number of strokes stored in advance in thedictionary 124. A stroke is constituted of a series of input positionsfrom an input position first notified with a “TOUCH” event to an inputposition notified with a “RELEASE” event. In other words, the number ofinput strokes is counted up every time a notification of the “RELEASE”event is received. The number of strokes of a triangular mark is “1”,and the number of strokes of a cross mark is “2”. For example, if thesetwo figures are stored in the dictionary 124, the maximum number ofstrokes is “2”. If it is determined that the number of input strokes isthe maximum number of strokes (YES in step S214), the processingproceeds to step S212. Whereas if it is determined that the number ofinput strokes is not the maximum number of strokes (NO in step S214),the processing proceeds to step S215.

In step S215, the identification unit 122 starts an input waiting timer.The input waiting timer is processing for measuring an elapsed time fromwhen the input position is released (when the obtainment unit 121receives the “RELEASE” event immediately before) to reach apredetermined time length. The processing of the input waiting timer isexecuted in order to consider a possibility that a user intends to drawa hand-drawn figure constituted of two or more strokes. In other words,while there is a possibility that a subsequent stroke is drawn after afirst stroke is drawn, determination of whether a command by ahand-drawn figure is input is suspended. The predetermined time lengthmeasured by the timer is a time length for waiting input of a next inputposition after the input position is released. The predetermined timelength is set to an appropriate value in advance by considering that auser can continuously input a next touch point after releasing a touchpoint and a waiting time for next processing after the release. Forexample, the predetermined time length is set to one second.

In step S216, the obtainment unit 121 determines whether information ofa new input position is notified from the touch sensor. Morespecifically, the obtainment unit 121 determines whether the coordinateinformation of a new input position is obtained together with the“TOUCH” event. If it is determined that the information of the new inputposition is notified from the touch sensor (YES in step S216), in stepS218, the identification unit 122 stops the input waiting timer, and theprocessing returns to step S201 to continue the subsequent processing.Whereas if it is determined that the information of the new inputposition is not notified from the touch sensor (NO in step S216), theprocessing proceeds to step S217.

In step S217, it is determined whether the input waiting timer hasexpired. In other words, it is determined whether a time during which asubsequent stroke is possibly drawn after the release has elapsed. If itis determined that the input waiting timer has expired (YES in stepS217), the processing proceeds to step S212. In this case, it can beconsidered that a next stroke is less likely to be input, and it isregarded that input of the hand-drawn figure is cancelled, so that therestraint of the scroll display is released in step S212. Whereas if itis determined that the input waiting timer has not expired (NO in stepS217), the processing returns to step S216.

In this regard, during when a long touch is not detected in step S202,and the input position is not released by the determination in stepS205, in step S219, the display control unit 126 executes the scrolldisplay corresponding to a change in the coordinates of the inputposition. According to the present exemplary embodiment, when a changeamount of the coordinates of the input position is larger than apredetermined distance, the scroll control unit 125 regards that theinput position is moved and notifies the display control unit 126 of amovement amount for slidingly moving the display image according to themovement amount. The predetermined distance is, for example, set to d3[dot].

In step S219, the display control unit 126 generates drawing data of theimage displayed in a state in which the image is moved and outputs thedrawing data to the touch panel display 115. Then, the processing isterminated. However, the display control unit 126 does not receive aninstruction of an image movement amount during when the scroll controlunit 125 restrains the scroll display, so that the display control unit126 terminates the processing without outputting the drawing data to thetouch panel display 115. As described above, when the scroll display isin a restraint state in step S203, if the input position is moved, themovement is not valid as a scroll operation, and the image is not movedin the display screen. When the scroll display is restrained and theinput position is moved without released, the processing in steps S201,S205, and S219 is repeated, and the information pieces regarding theobtained input positions are stored in the RAM 114. Further, in responseto release of the input position, the processing proceeds from step S205to step S206, and the shape recognition processing is executed based onthe loci of the input positions stored in the RAM 114.

An example of the processing for recognizing movement of the touchedinput position by distinguishing movement intended to a scroll operationfrom movement intended to a gesture operation according to the firstexemplary embodiment has been described above. According to the presentexemplary embodiment, the scroll display is restrained in response todetection of a long touch based on the information of the obtained inputposition, and a series of input positions input thereafter is identifiedas a target of the recognition processing of a hand-drawn figure whichis input with the intention of a gesture operation.

<Operation Example of First Exemplary Embodiment>

An operation example when a user inputs a scroll operation to theinformation processing apparatus 100 according to the first exemplaryembodiment is described with reference to FIGS. 5A and 5B. FIG. 5Aillustrates a state in which an image 501 is displayed on the displayscreen of the information processing apparatus 100. When a user starts atouch with a finger 500, an input position 502 is obtained. Next, FIG.5B illustrates a state in which the finger 500 is moved to lower left (adirection to which both of the X coordinate and the Y coordinate arereduced), and an input position 503 is detected. However, a long touchis not performed during when the state is shifted from that in FIG. 5Ato that in FIG. 5B (NO in step S202). Since the finger 500 is notreleased (NO in step S203), the information processing apparatus 100regards that the same input position is moved from coordinates of theinput position 502 to coordinates of the input position 503 based on theobtained ID. According to the present exemplary embodiment, when a longtouch is not input immediately after the start of the touch, themovement of the input position is reflected to the scroll display (instep S219). Therefore, in FIG. 5B, the image 501 is scrolled to a leftdirection by following the movement of the input position, and an image504 newly appears from a right side.

In FIG. 5B, an example is illustrated in which a scroll direction of theimage 501 is limited to the Y-axis direction if the input position isalso moved in the X-axis direction. However, two-dimensional scrolldisplay may be performed by following the movement of the inputposition.

Next, an operation example when a user inputs a gesture operation bydrawing a hand-drawn figure to the information processing apparatus 100according to the first exemplary embodiment is described with referenceto FIGS. 6A to 6C and FIGS. 7A to 7F. FIG. 6A illustrates the same statein FIG. 5A, therefore, the common elements are denoted by the samereference numerals. FIG. 5B illustrates a change in the informationprocessing apparatus 100 when the finger 500 performs a long touch onthe input position 502 (YES in step S202). In FIG. 6B, the scrolldisplay of the screen by the movement of the input position isrestrained in response to that the information processing apparatus 100recognizes a long touch (in step S203), and the gray area is displayedon the display screen (in step S204). A user visually recognizes thatthe screen turned gray, and thus it is easier for the user to recognizethat a hand-drawn figure can be input. In this regard, by adjustingtransparency of the gray area, a user can sufficiently recognize theimage as the target of the gesture operation. On this occasion, theinformation processing apparatus 100 stores the drawing data of thedisplay screen displayed before the gray area is displayed andimmediately performs processing for restoring the former display statewhen the gesture input is canceled.

FIG. 6C illustrates a state in which the user's finger 500 is moved, andthe input position 503 is obtained. It is assumed that the coordinatesof the input position 503 is the same as those in FIG. 5B. However, inFIG. 5B, the image 501 is subjected to the scroll display by followingthe movement of the input position, whereas in FIG. 6C, the image 501 isnot moved since the scroll is restrained. Processing for displaying aline indicating a locus of the moved input positions may be added here.In such a case, a user can input a gesture operation while understandinga shape of the locus recognized by the information processing apparatus100.

Specific examples of the shape recognition processing of a locusexecuted in step S206 after a user draws a hand-drawn figure in atouched state and separates (releases) the finger therefrom aredescribed with reference to FIGS. 7A to 7F. FIGS. 7A and 7D eachillustrate a locus of a series of input positions obtained by theinformation processing apparatus 100 after a long touch. A movementlocus of the input positions is indicated which is obtained after thelong touch by excluding the input positions obtained during the longtouch after the start of touch. FIG. 7A corresponds to a case when ahand-drawn figure with a triangular mark shape is input, and FIG. 7Dcorresponds to a case when a hand-drawn figure with a cross mark shapeis input. A white circle in each drawing represents an input position atwhich release is detected and an input position last obtained in onestroke.

FIG. 7A illustrates a state in which a user inputs a hand-drawn figureof a triangular mark. A series of obtained input positions includesseven points namely positions p1 to p7. The position p1 is an inputposition obtained after the long touch by excluding the input positionsobtained during the long touch after the start of touch, and informationof the input position is added in the input order and constitutes thelocus. Depending on a detection period of an input position and a sizeof the display, input positions more than seven points may be obtainedand the locus may be drawn by these points. Even in such a case,according to the present exemplary embodiment, the input position isidentified at seven points after the release of the input position andthe stroke is divided into seven parts. According to the presentexemplary embodiment, a locus division number used in the recognitionprocessing is coincident with the number of coordinate pointsconstituting the shape of the stroke registered in the dictionary 124.In other words, in the dictionary 124 according to the present exemplaryembodiment, a model constituted of seven coordinate points is registeredas a shape of a hand-drawn figure corresponding to a command. FIGS. 7Band 7C each illustrate an example of a model registered in thedictionary 124 as shape information of a triangular mark, and FIGS. 7Eand 7F each illustrate an example of a model registered in thedictionary 124 as shape information of a cross mark.

In step S206, the processing for recognizing the shape of the movementlocus of the input positions is performed based on input as illustratedin FIGS. 7A and 7D and the dictionary 124 information as illustrated inFIGS. 7B, 7C, 7E, and 7F. More specifically, the movement locus of theinput positions input by a user is compared with the shape of the modelregistered in advance, and the shape of the model coincide coincidentwith the movement locus is identified. Information of the locusregistered in the dictionary 124 is constituted of a plurality ofcoordinates of which an input order is fixed. A triangular mark in FIGS.7B and 7C is constituted of one stroke, and a cross mark in FIGS. 7E and7F is constituted of two strokes. Even if a shape of a figure is thesame, a plurality of models corresponding to different input orders isstored in the dictionary 124, and accordingly, if a user draws a strokein a different stroke order, the figure can be recognized as the sameshape. FIGS. 7B and 7C illustrate locus models of a triangular mark in adifferent stroke order, and FIGS. 7E and 7F illustrate locus models of across mark in a different stroke order. Regarding a calculation methodfor comparing a locus shape, first, a distance between points iscalculated. The points coincide with each other in the input ordersthereof among the coordinates of the input positions constituting theinput hand-drawn figure and coordinates constituting figures registeredin the dictionary 124. A distance is calculated at all points from astart point to a release point of input, and an integrated value ofdistances obtained as calculation results is used as a value indicatingmagnitude of difference in shapes between the input locus and thedictionary 124 information. For example, a distance between the positionp1 in FIG. 7A and a position P1 in FIG. 7B is calculated, the similardistance calculation is executed to seven coordinates in turn, and atotal sum of the calculation results is regarded as the magnitude of thedifference between the shapes. Therefore, as an obtained value issmaller, the shapes are similar to each other. According to the presentexemplary embodiment, when the integrated value is equal to or less thana predetermined threshold value, it is regarded that the shape of thehand-drawn figure input by a user coincides with the shape of the modelof a calculation target. With respect to the input in FIG. 7A, the shapeof the triangular mark in FIG. 7B is identified as a recognition resultof the input hand-drawn figure. Further, in the dictionary 124, thehand-drawn figure of the triangular mark is corresponded to the commandto instruct the screen transition to the list screen of a plurality ofthumbnail images. Thus, after the recognition processing, the screentransition is executed (in step S213). In addition, the displayed grayarea is deleted, and the restraint of the scroll display is released (instep S212).

FIG. 7D illustrates a state in which a user inputs two strokesconstituting a cross mark as a hand-drawn figure. Input positionsconstituting a first stroke of the cross mark are the positions p1 top3, and input positions constituting a second stroke are positions p4 top6. The input position is once released at the position p3, and input isperformed from the positions p4 to p6 and then released again. Therecognition processing in step S206 is executed every time the releaseis detected. According to the present exemplary embodiment, a modelcoincident with a linear shape from the positions p1 to p3 is notregistered in the dictionary 124. Therefore, when a release point at theposition p3 is detected, there is no command corresponding to the inputstroke (NO in step S207). In addition, the number of input strokes isnot the maximum number of strokes “2” in the dictionary 124 (NO in stepS214), and thus an elapsed time length after the release is determinedin the timer processing. If the input position p4 is detected within onesecond (YES in step S216), the coordinates of the movement locus of theinput positions are continuously stored, and the shape recognitionprocessing is executed again at the time point when a release point atthe position p6 is detected.

As a recognition result of the hand-drawn figure, the shape of the crossmark in FIG. 7E is identified. In the dictionary 124 according to thepresent exemplary embodiment, the cross mark is associated with thecommand to call the deletion function of the image of the operationtarget image displayed at that time point and information of the GUIscreen to be displayed corresponding to the command. Thus, when therecognition processing is complete, display of the gray area is deleted,and the confirmation screen of whether to execute deletion of the imageis displayed (in step S209). The processing corresponding to the useroperation received on the confirmation screen is executed (in stepS211), the restraint of the scroll display is released (in step S212),and display contents are changed according to the situation. Forexample, if execution of the deletion processing is instructed by anoperation on the GUI screen, image data is deleted from the HDD, and aprevious or next image of the deleted image is displayed. When cancel ofthe deletion processing is instructed, the display returns the formerdisplay state when the restraint of the scroll is released. As describedabove, when the processing difficult to be restored is executed, theconfirmation screen is displayed, and accordingly, a serious mistake ofthe user operation can be prevented. For example, if a user incorrectlyremembers a shape of a hand-drawn figure for the intended operation, anerroneous operation can be reduced.

<Modification>

In the above-described processing in the flowchart in FIG. 2, input of along touch is described as an example of a first condition ofrestraining the scroll display, conditions determined here are notlimited to a long touch. For example, a tap, continuous taps, and amulti-touch can be applied instead of a long touch. A tap operation isan operation recognized when a detected input position remains within apredetermined range and is no longer detected within a predeterminedtime period.

A continuous double tap operation is an operation in which a tapoperation is continuously performed twice or more within a predeterminedtime period. A multi-touch operation is an operation in which two ormore input positions are detected at the same time. A double tap inwhich a tap operation is input twice in a row is described as an exampleof the continuous tap operation with reference to FIG. 3B and FIG. 4B.FIG. 3B illustrates a series of input positions obtained during thedouble tap operation. A black circle represents a touched inputposition, and a white circle represents a release point at which thetouch is released. FIG. 4B is a chart indicating timings when the inputpositions are obtained during the double tap operation. When the doubletap operation is to be detected, threshold value processing is performedin a time length of (t3−t2). If it is determined that the tap operationis performed twice in a row in an interval short enough to be within apredetermined time length, it is determined that the double tap isperformed at the time point when the position p3 is obtained. If thecontinuous tap is set as a condition of restraining the scroll display,the processing in step S202 in FIG. 2 may be changed to processing fordetection the continuous tap.

A multi-touch is an operation in which two or more input positions aredetected at almost the same time. However, an operation of a multi-touchat two points is often assigned to an operation of enlargement androtation of an image and the like, so that the operation can bedistinguished when input of three or more points is set as a conditionof shifting to the hand drawing input mode and restraining the scrolldisplay. An example of a state in which a multi-touch input at threepoints is recognized is described with reference to FIG. 3C and FIG. 4C.FIG. 3C illustrates input positions of the multi-touch operation. Ablack circle represents an input position, and a white circle representsa release point. FIG. 4C is a timing chart corresponding to FIG. 3C.According to the present exemplary embodiment, the touch sensor notifiesof information of the input position one point each even in themulti-touched state, so that it is recognized that the operation is themulti-touch operation at the time t3, and the restraint of the scrolldisplay is executed. Subsequently, a locus to be recognized as ahand-drawn figure is a movement locus of coordinates of any one of aplurality of detected input positions or the center point or the centerof gravity of the plurality of detected input positions. When any one ofa plurality of detected input positions is followed to recognize themovement locus, the gray area is displayed in step S204, and a step fordetecting that the number of the input positions is reduced to one isadded after shifting to the hand drawing input mode. For example, if amulti-touch at three input positions as in FIG. 3C is a trigger to startthe hand drawing input, release of two points are detected, and thecoordinate information pieces of the released input positions aredeleted from the loci stored in the RAM 114. Then, the coordinates ofthe remaining one point are stored, and a shape of the movement locus isrecognized in response to detection of release.

As described above, according to the present exemplary embodiment, ifinformation of at least one or more input positions obtained immediatelyafter the start of the touch satisfies the first condition, the scrolldisplay is restrained, and accordingly, an environment is provided inwhich input can be performed by easily switching a scroll operation anda gesture operation. The first condition is a condition defined byinformation other than the coordinates of the input positions (forexample, a duration time, the number of continuation, and the number ofinputs). Which condition is used may be selected according to a touchoperation can be received by the information processing apparatus 100.For example, if an individual command is assigned to a long touch, adifferent condition such as a tap is selected, and thus an environmentcan be provided in which input can be performed by easily switching ascroll operation and a gesture operation.

Further, in the above-described step S202, it is determined whether along touch is input immediately after the start of the touch. However,it may be modified to determine whether a long touch is input withoutlimiting the timing at immediately after the touch. In other words, thescroll display may be restrained by detecting a long touch performedafter the input position is moved for a predetermined distance or more.However, in this case, the coordinate information of the input positionfrom immediately after the start of the touch to when the long touch isperformed is cleared and excluded from a target of the recognitionprocessing of a gesture operation performed thereafter. In other words,recognition of the shape of the movement locus as the gesture operationis limited to the movement locus following after the long touch.Further, regarding a long touch performed after the input position ismoved for a predetermined distance or more, a condition of a durationtime length may be changed from that of a long touch immediately afterthe start of the touch. More specifically, the fact that the inputposition remains within a predetermined range for a longer time is setas a condition of determining whether the long touch is input. Asdescribed above, the condition of the duration time of the long touch isset longer, and operation efficiency of a long touch can be improvedwhile reducing interference of the operation with a screen scrolloperation.

According to the above-described exemplary embodiment, the gray area isdisplayed when the scroll display is restrained in order to indicatethat input of a hand-drawn figure can be received, however, theexemplary embodiment is not limited to this configuration. An area withcolor other than gray may be used, and shades and brightness of thedisplay screen may be changed without limiting color. In addition, itcan be indicated for a user that a hand-drawn figure can be input byhiding the display item, such as a button, and displaying guidance forinputtable gesture shapes.

According to the first exemplary embodiment, the information processingapparatus is shifted to a state of receiving input of a hand-drawnfigure in response to detection of a long touch and then recognizes ashape of a locus of input positions obtained after the long touch inresponse to detection of release of the input position. In other words,it is based on the premise that a user starts input of a hand-drawnfigure without releasing the input position after the long touch.Therefore, a start point of a movement locus of which a shape isrecognized always coincides with a position at which a long touch isinput. In contrast, according to a second exemplary embodiment, anexample in which processing is added is described. The processing to beadded is to limit a stroke of which a shape is recognized using a secondcondition from one or more strokes of input positions obtained after thescroll display is restrained in response to a long touch and input of ahand-drawn figure becomes available. The second condition is a conditiondifferent from the first condition and defined with respect to a stateof a locus of input positions already input. Specifically, according tothe present exemplary embodiment, a length of a first stroke is focusedso as to determine whether the first stroke is a stroke to be a targetof the shape recognition. Accordingly, if a user once takes his/her handoff the display screen at the time point when a long touch is recognizedby the information processing apparatus 100 and again starts to input astroke, recognition of a hand-drawn figure can be performed according toan intention of the user.

The external appearance and the configurations of the informationprocessing apparatus 100 according to the present exemplary embodimentare the same as those in the first exemplary embodiment described withreference to FIGS. 1A to 1C, and thus the detailed descriptions thereofare omitted. However, the identification unit 122 according to thesecond exemplary embodiment executes the recognition processing afterdetermining whether the first stroke among the strokes constituted ofthe input positions obtained after the long touch is the target of theshape recognition processing. More specifically, if the first stroke istoo short as a stroke constituting a part of the hand-drawn figure, theinput positions constituting the relevant stroke are not regarded asinput position candidates constituting the hand-drawn figure andexcluded from the target of the shape recognition processing. Thedictionary 124 according to the second exemplary embodiment also storesat least strokes with shapes of a triangular mark, a cross mark, and acircle mark exemplified in the first exemplary embodiment.

According to the present exemplary embodiment, processing forrecognizing a touch operation is executed in accordance with a flowchartin FIG. 8. Steps in common with those in the flowchart in FIG. 2described in the first exemplary embodiment are denoted by the samereference numerals, and the detailed descriptions thereof are omitted. Apoint different from the flowchart in FIG. 2 is that in step S205, ifrelease of the input position is detected (YES in step S205), theprocessing proceeds to step S801, and the recognition processing of thegesture operation is executed.

FIG. 9A is a flowchart illustrating details of the recognitionprocessing of the gesture operation executed in step S801 according tothe second exemplary embodiment. In step S901, the identification unit122 determines whether a length of a first stroke in the loci of theinput positions input after the long touch is shorter than apredetermined length. The predetermined length here is a threshold valueof a length set according to a shortest stroke in the strokes stored asthe hand-drawn figures in the dictionary 124. If it is determined thatthe first stroke is shorter than the predetermined length (YES in stepS901), the processing proceeds to step S902. Whereas if it is determinedthat the first stroke is not shorter than the predetermined length (NOin step S901), the processing proceeds to step S903. In step S902, thefirst stroke shorter than the length set as the threshold value isconsidered not to be input to constitute the stroke of the hand-drawnfigure and excluded from a recognition target of a locus shape. Forexample, the information thereof is deleted from the RAM 114.Alternatively, the information thereof is stored in association withattribute information indicating not the recognition target. In stepS903, the identification unit 122 executes the recognition processing ofthe locus shape for the information pieces of the input positionsremaining without being excluded in step S902 as targets among theinformation pieces of the input positions stored in the RAM 114. Therecognition processing is the same as the processing described in thefirst exemplary embodiment (step S206 in the flowchart in FIG. 2), andthus the detailed descriptions thereof are omitted. When the recognitionprocessing is complete, the processing returns to the flowchart in FIG.8 and proceeds to step S207.

<Operation Example of Second Exemplary Embodiment>

An operation example when a user inputs a gesture operation to theinformation processing apparatus 100 according to the second exemplaryembodiment is described with reference to FIGS. 11A and 11B and FIGS.12A and 12B. The operation example is described by comparing a case whena user inputs a hand-drawn figure of a triangular mark without releasingthe touch after the long touch with a case when a user once releases thetouch after the long touch and again inputs a hand-drawn figure of atriangular mark.

The case when a user inputs the hand-drawn figure of the triangular markwithout releasing the touch after the long touch is described as anoperation example A. FIG. 11A illustrates a series of input positions p1to p7 obtained when the hand-drawn figure of the triangular mark isinput without releasing the touch after the long touch. FIG. 12A is atiming chart corresponding to FIG. 11A and illustrates a timing wheneach of the input positions p1 to p7 is obtained. First, regarding thepositions p1 to p6, when the information pieces regarding the inputpositions are obtained (in step S201), the long touch is already inputand not detected this time (NO in step S202), and the touch is notreleased (NO in step S205), and thus the operation is terminated withoutexecuting the deactivated scroll display. This processing is repeated.When the information of the position p7 is obtained at the time pointt7, the release is detected (YES in step S205), and the recognitionprocessing in step S801 is executed. In the case of the operationexample A, the first stroke constituted of the positions p1 to p7 islong enough (NO in step S901), therefore the shape recognitionprocessing using the dictionary 124 is executed (in step S903) and thestroke of the triangular mark is identified. Subsequent processing issimilar to that in the first exemplary embodiment, and the commandcorresponded to the stroke of the triangular mark shape (transition tothe list screen of a plurality of thumbnail images) is executed.

Next, the case when a user once releases the touch after the long touchand again inputs the hand-drawn figure of the triangular mark isdescribed as an operation example B. FIG. 11B illustrates a series ofinput positions p1 to p9 obtained when the touch is once released andthen the hand-drawn figure of the triangular mark is input. FIG. 12B isa timing chart corresponding to FIG. 11B and illustrates a timing wheneach of the input positions p1 to p9 is obtained. In the operationexample B, the first stroke is constituted of the positions p1 and p2,and the second stroke is constituted of the positions p3 to p9. In thiscase, the first stroke is not intended to draw the hand-drawn figure andvery short. Hereinbelow, detailed descriptions of the processingoverlapping with the above-described operation example are omitted.

In the operation example B, in the first stroke, when releaseinformation of the position p2 is obtained at the time p2 (YES in stepS205), the recognition processing in step S801 is executed. A lengthbetween the positions p1 and p2 is shorter than the threshold value (YESin step S901). Thus, the positions p1 and p2 are excluded from thetarget of the shape recognition (in step S902), and at this time point,a locus to be the target of the recognition processing is not stored.Therefore, as a result of the recognition processing (in step S903),there is no stroke to be identified (NO in step S207). The number ofstrokes at this time point is “1”, and it is not the maximum number ofstrokes (NO in step S214). The position p3 is obtained before the inputwaiting timer has expired, and the timer is stopped (in step S218), thenthe processing is started with respect to the position p3. During whenthe positions p3 to p8 are obtained, the shape of the stroke is notidentified, and the information pieces of the input positions are storedwhile restraining the scroll display. Then, if release of the positionp9 is detected at the time t9 (YES in step S205), the recognitionprocessing in step S801 is executed. A length between the positions p3to p9 is longer than the threshold value (NO in step S901), the shaperecognition processing is executed (in step S903), and the stroke of thetriangular mark is identified. Subsequently, the command corresponded tothe triangular mark (transition to the list screen of a plurality ofthumbnail images) is executed.

As described above, according to the second exemplary embodiment, therecognition processing targeting on an appropriate input position can beexecuted in both of a case when a user starts input of a stroke withoutreleasing the touch and a case when a user once releases the touch andstarts the input after input of the hand-drawn figure becomes available.According to the present exemplary embodiment, the scroll display isrestrained and the gray area is displayed simultaneously at the timepoint when the long touch is obtained, and accordingly, it is clearlyindicated to a user that the hand drawing input becomes available. Auser may unconsciously take his/her hand off when contents of the screenare largely changed. According to the second exemplary embodiment, insuch a case, the user can naturally continue the operation without theneed for performing the long touch again.

As described above, according to the second exemplary embodiment, therecognition processing can be performed by identifying the strokeintended to the hand-drawn figure by a user in a plurality of inputstrokes, so that more variety of hand-drawn figures can be recognized.It is noted that the modification similar to that of the first exemplaryembodiment can be applied to the second exemplary embodiment.

According to the second exemplary embodiment, when a stroke of which ashape is recognized is selected from one or more strokes of the inputpositions obtained after the long touch, the fact that the first strokeis short is used as the second condition to exclude the stroke from thetarget of the shape recognition. In contrast, according to a thirdexemplary embodiment, propriety of exclusion is determined by the secondcondition considering a possibility that a shape including a short firststroke is registered in the dictionary 124, and accordingly, hand-drawnfigures with far more variety of shapes can be recognized.

The external appearance and the configurations of the informationprocessing apparatus 100 according to the present exemplary embodimentare the same as those in the first and the second exemplary embodimentsdescribed with reference to FIGS. 1A to 1C, and thus the detaileddescriptions thereof are omitted. However, the identification unit 122according to the third exemplary embodiment once treats the first strokeamong the strokes constituted of the input positions obtained after thelong touch as a target of the shape recognition processing. Then, therecognition unit 123 once executes the recognition processing andfinally determines a stroke as the target of the shape recognitionprocessing based on a result of the recognition processing and a lengthof the stroke. More specifically, if the first stroke does not coincidewith any shape of the first stroke stored in the dictionary 124 and istoo short as a stroke constituting a part of the hand-drawn figure, therecognition unit 123 regards that the input positions constituting therelevant stroke are not candidates constituting the hand-drawn figure.Therefore, the information pieces of the relevant input positions areexcluded from the target of the shape recognition processing. In thedictionary 124 according to the third exemplary embodiment, strokes ofcharacter shapes, such as numbers, alphabets, and Japanese hiragana andkatakana are registered in addition to strokes with shapes of atriangular mark, a cross mark, and a circle mark exemplified in thefirst and the second exemplary embodiments. The stroke of a character iscorresponded to a command to input a text of the relevant character.However, the dictionary 124 according to the third exemplary embodimentmanages shape information of each stroke of each hand-drawn figurecorresponding to the command in order to enable the shape recognitionprocessing to be performed on each stroke. The present exemplaryembodiment can be effectively utilized especially in the case whereregistered character includes a relatively short first stroke, such as“j” or “i”.

According to the present exemplary embodiment, processing forrecognizing a touch operation is executed in accordance with theflowchart in FIG. 8 similar to the second exemplary embodiment. However,unlike in the second exemplary embodiment, in step S801, the recognitionprocessing of the gesture operation is executed in accordance with aflowchart in FIG. 9B.

In the processing in the flowchart in FIG. 9B, first, in step S911, therecognition unit 123 executes the shape recognition processing for eachinput stroke based on the information regarding the input positionstored in the dictionary 124. As described in the first exemplaryembodiment, the shape recognition processing is executed by calculatingthe magnitude of difference between the input stroke and the model inthe dictionary 124 from coordinates. In step S912, the recognition unit123 determines whether there is the dictionary 124 data coincident withthe input stroke as a result of the recognition processing executed instep S911. More specifically, the recognition unit 123 determineswhether the dictionary 124 includes one dictionary 124 data (forexample, data indicating a figure or a character) registered in thedictionary 124, wherein a shape of each stroke of the dictionary 124data coincides with each shape of the input stroke. If the relevantdictionary 124 data is present (YES in step S912), the processing in theflowchart in FIG. 9B is terminated. Whereas if the relevant thedictionary 124 is not present (NO in step S912), the processing proceedsto step S913.

In step S913, the identification unit 122 determines whether a length ofthe locus of the first stroke among the loci of input positions inputafter the long touch is shorter than the predetermined length. Thisprocessing is the same processing in step S901 according to the secondexemplary embodiment. If it is determined that the first stroke isshorter than the predetermined length (YES in step S913), the processingproceeds to step S914. Whereas if it is determined that the first strokeis not shorter than the predetermined length (NO in step S913), theprocessing proceeds to step S207 in the flowchart in FIG. 8. In stepS914, the identification unit 122 excludes the first stroke from therecognition target of the locus shape. More specifically, theinformation of the input position of the excluded portion is deletedfrom the RAM 114, or the attribute information indicating that the inputposition is excluded is added thereto. In step S915, the recognitionunit 123 executes the recognition processing of the locus shape for theinformation pieces of the input positions remaining without beingexcluded in step S914 as targets among the information pieces of theinput positions stored in the RAM 114. The recognition processing is thesame as the processing described according to the first exemplaryembodiment. When the recognition processing is complete, the processingreturns to the flowchart in FIG. 8 and proceeds to step S207. Thesubsequent processing is the same as those according to the first andthe second exemplary embodiments.

<Operation Example of Third Exemplary Embodiment>

An operation example when a user inputs a gesture operation to theinformation processing apparatus 100 according to the third exemplaryembodiment is described with reference to FIGS. 11C and 11D and FIGS.12C and 12D. The operation example is described by comparing a case whena user inputs a locus of an alphabet “i” without releasing the touchafter the long touch with a case when a user once releases the touchafter the long touch and again inputs a locus of an alphabet “i”. Thedictionary 124 of the information processing apparatus 100 stores shapeinformation of “i”.

The case when a user inputs a locus of “i” without releasing the touchafter the long touch is described as an operation example C. FIG. 11Cillustrates a series of input positions p1 to p5 obtained when the locusof “i” is input without releasing the touch after the long touch. FIG.12C is a timing chart corresponding to FIG. 11C and illustrates a timingwhen each of the input positions p1 to p5 is obtained. In the operationexample C, the first stroke is constituted of the positions p1 and p2,and the second stroke is constituted of the positions p3 to p5. In thisregard, the first stroke is intended to draw a hand-drawn figure andrepresents a dot of “i”, and a stroke length thereof is shorter than thethreshold value. Hereinbelow, detailed descriptions of the processingoverlapping with the above-described operation example are omitted.

In the operation example C, when release of the position p2 is detectedat the time t2 in the first stroke (YES in step S205), the recognitionprocessing in step S801 is executed. In this stage, it is determinedwhether the first stroke of each shape information stored in thedictionary 124 coincides with a shape of the first stroke constituted ofthe positions p1 and p2. Here, at least the shape of the first stroke of“i” coincides with the stored shape information (YES in step S912), thefirst stroke is not excluded, and the processing proceeds to step S207.In this stage, only the first stroke of “i” coincides with the shapeinformation, and it is not yet specified that corresponding to thehand-drawn figure is input, therefore it is determined that there is nocommand corresponding to the input stroke (NO in step S207). Further,the number of strokes is not the maximum number of strokes “2” (NO instep S214), so that the series of processing is again started inresponse to obtaining the input position p3 before the input wait timerhas expired.

Regarding the second stroke, when release of the position p5 is detectedat the time t5 (YES in step S205), the recognition processing in stepS801 is executed. The shape recognition processing is executed to eachof the first and the second strokes (in step S911), and the strokes of“i” is identified which coincide with both of the first and the secondstroke (YES in step S912). In step S207, for example, a command to inputan alphabet “i” is identified, and subsequently, the processing for, forexample, displaying a type of “i” or shifting to a screen correspondingto the input of “i” is executed.

Next, the case when a user once releases the touch after the long touchand again inputs a locus of “i” is described as an operation example D.FIG. 11D illustrates a series of input positions p1 to p7 obtained whenthe touch is once released and then the locus of “i” is input. FIG. 12Dis a timing chart corresponding to FIG. 11D and illustrates a timingwhen each of the input positions p1 to p7 is obtained. In the operationexample D, the first stroke is constituted of the positions p1 and p2,the second stroke is constituted of the positions p3 and p4, and thethird stroke is constituted of the positions p5 to p7. In this case, thefirst stroke is not intended to draw the hand-drawn figure and veryshort. The second and the third strokes are input with the intention todraw “i” by hand. Hereinbelow, detailed descriptions of the processingoverlapping with the above-described operation example are omitted.

In the operation example D, the processing first executed for the firststroke is the same as that in the operation example C. The first strokeis short but coincides with at least the shape of the first stroke of“i” in the dictionary 124, therefore the processing is repeated afterinput of the position p3. Regarding the second stroke, the recognitionprocessing in step S801 is executed in response to detecting release ofthe position p4 at the time t4. In the dictionary 124 according to thethird exemplary embodiment, the dictionary 124 data of which first andsecond strokes are both short is not stored. Since there is nocoincident dictionary 124 data (NO in step S912), and the first strokeis shorter than the threshold value (YES in step S913), in step S914,the first stroke is excluded from the target of the shape recognitionprocessing. Accordingly, the stroke constituted of the input positionsp3 and p4 which are not excluded among the input strokes newly becomesthe target of the recognition processing as the first stroke of which ashape is recognized. In step S915, when the recognition processing isexecuted again, the stroke coincides with at least the shape of thefirst stroke of “i”, however, the command is not identified at this timepoint (NO in step S207). The processing is again started in response toobtaining the input position p5 before the input wait timer has expired.

Regarding the last stroke, the recognition processing is executed whenrelease of the position p7 is detected at the time t7. The stroke of “i”is identified by the recognition processing using the respective loci ofthe positions p3 and p4 and the positions p5 to p7 which are notexcluded as the first and the second strokes (in step S911). In stepS207, for example, a command to input an alphabet “i” is identified, andsubsequently, the processing for, for example, displaying a type of “i”or shifting to a screen corresponding to the input of “i” is executed.

As described above, according to the third exemplary embodiment, therecognition processing can be executed even for a short stroke bydetermining whether a user intends to input a hand-drawn figure, so thatmore variety of hand-drawn figures can be recognized. It is noted thatthe modification similar to that of the first and the second exemplaryembodiments can be applied to the third exemplary embodiment.

According to the second and the third exemplary embodiments, it isdetermined whether the entire first stroke is regarded as the target ofthe shape recognition processing so as to deal with a case when the handdrawing input screen is displayed, and a user once releases the touchand again starts input. According to a fourth exemplary embodiment, anexample is described for identifying from which portion of a firststroke is input with the intention to draw a hand-drawn figure by thesecond condition considering a possibility that a user starts to draw astroke by sliding an input position without releasing.

The external appearance and the configurations of the informationprocessing apparatus 100 according to the present exemplary embodimentare the same as those in the other exemplary embodiments described withreference to FIGS. 1A to 1C, and thus the detailed descriptions thereofare omitted. However, when the input stroke does not coincide with thestroke registered in the dictionary 124, the identification unit 122according to the fourth exemplary embodiment determines whether aportion of the first stroke is excluded from the target of the shaperecognition based on a degree of bend of the first stroke. Morespecifically, if a portion which is extremely different from asuccessive locus in its angle and too short as an element constituting ahand-drawn figure is included at the beginning of the first stroke, theportion is considered not to be the input position candidateconstituting the hand-drawn figure and excluded from the target of theshape recognition processing. In the dictionary 124 according to thefourth exemplary embodiment, at least strokes with shapes of atriangular mark, a cross mark, and a circle mark exemplified in thefirst and the second exemplary embodiments are registered.

According to the present exemplary embodiment, processing forrecognizing a touch operation is also executed in accordance with theflowchart in FIG. 8 similar to the second and the third exemplaryembodiments. However, unlike in the second exemplary embodiment, in stepS801, the recognition processing of the gesture operation is executed inaccordance with a flowchart in FIG. 10. In the flowchart in FIG. 10,steps in common with those in FIG. 9B are denoted by the same referencenumerals, and the detailed descriptions thereof are omitted.

According to the fourth exemplary embodiment, in step S913, if it isdetermined that a length of a locus of the first stroke is not shorterthan the predetermined length (NO in step S913), the processing proceedsto step S1001. In step S1001, the recognition unit 123 determineswhether the beginning of the first stroke is bent. For example,regarding a series of the input positions constituting a section ofwhich an accumulated length from the start point is the predeterminedlength in the first stroke, an angle formed between a straight lineconnecting two successive input positions and the X axis is calculated.If a change amount of the angle is larger than a predetermined angle, itis determined that the beginning of the first stroke is bent.Subsequently, an input position of which an angle is largely changedbefore and after thereof is identified as a drawing start position. Ifit is determined that the beginning of the first stroke is bend (YES instep S1001), the processing proceeds to step S1002. If it is determinedthat the beginning of the first stroke is not bend (NO in step S1001),the processing returns to the flowchart in FIG. 8.

In step S1002, regarding the first stroke, a portion from the startpoint to the drawing start position is excluded from the target of thelocus shape recognition processing. More specifically, the informationof the input position of the excluded portion is deleted from the RAM114, or the attribute information indicating that the input position isexcluded is added thereto. Then, in step S915, the recognitionprocessing is executed to the stroke constituted of the input positionsremaining without being excluded, and the processing returns to theflowchart in FIG. 8. The subsequent processing is the same as thoseaccording to the above-described exemplary embodiments.

The order of the processing for determining a length of the entire firststroke in step S913 and the processing for determining a degree of bendof the first stroke may be switched. However, if a user wants todifferentiate a position inputting the long touch from a position tostart drawing of a hand-drawn figure, a load is smaller for the user toonce release the touch, and the user is likely to do so unconsciously.Therefore, by executing first the processing for determining the lengthof the first stroke, a judgement of the situation can be performed moreefficiently.

Further, according to the fourth exemplary embodiment, an example isdescribed in which the processing for determining a degree of bend ofthe first stroke is executed in addition to the processing fordetermining the length of the entire first stroke according to the thirdexemplary embodiment, however, the processing for determining a degreeof bend of the first stroke may be executed separately. At that time,the determination processing in step S1001 is again executed for thefirst stroke which is partially excluded, and the processing forexcluding the beginning portion of the first stroke may be repeatedbased on an angle change. Accordingly, if movement of the input positionis repeated before start of drawing of the hand-drawn figure, thedrawing start position can be identified.

<Operation Example of Fourth Exemplary Embodiment>

An operation example E when a user inputs a gesture operation to theinformation processing apparatus 100 according to the fourth exemplaryembodiment is described with reference to FIG. 11E and FIG. 12E. FIG.11E illustrates a series of input positions p1 to p8 obtained, forexample, when a user performs a long touch at a position on a left sideof the screen, moves the finger to a center portion without releasingthe touch, and inputs a locus of a triangular mark. FIG. 12E is a timingchart corresponding to

FIG. 11E and illustrates a timing when each of the input positions p1 top8 is obtained. In the operation example E, the first stroke isconstituted of all of the positions p1 to p8. However, a user performsthe long touch at the position p1 and then moves the drawing startposition of the hand-drawn figure to the position p2. Therefore, in theintention of the user, the positions p2 to p8 is a locus input as theinput positions constituting the hand-drawn figure. Hereinbelow,detailed descriptions of the processing overlapping with theabove-described operation example are omitted.

In the operation example E, when release of the position p8 is obtainedat the time t8 (YES in step S205), input of the first stroke iscomplete, and the recognition processing in step S801 is executed. Inthis stage, it is determined whether the first stroke of each shapeinformation stored in the dictionary 124 coincides with a shape of thestroke constituted of the input positions p1 to p8. However, the shapeof the stroke does not coincide with the dictionary 124 data (NO in stepS912), and the first stroke is longer than the length of the thresholdvalue (NO in step S913). Therefore, in step S1001, it is determinedwhether the beginning of the stroke is bent. As an example, if a portionforming a sharp angle smaller than 90 [degree] is present in a part thattotal distance from the start point is not beyond threshold d4 [dot] ofthe first stroke, it is determined that the beginning of the stroke isbent. In the case of the example in FIG. 11E, a straight line passingthrough the positions p1 and p2 and a straight line passing through thepositions p2 to p3 forms a sharp angle, and thus it is determined thatthe beginning of the stroke is bent (YES in step S1001). Accordingly, instep S1002, the portion before the position p2 is excluded from theshape recognition target. Then, in step S915, the shape recognitionprocessing is executed, and the stroke of the triangular mark isidentified. Subsequently, the command corresponded to the stroke of thetriangular mark shape (transition to the list screen of a plurality ofthumbnail images) is executed.

As described above, according to the fourth exemplary embodiment, therecognition processing is performed by identifying the drawing startposition at which a user starts to input the hand-drawn figure even inone stroke, so that the information processing apparatus can deal withmore variety of hand drawing input methods. It is noted that themodification similar to those of the other exemplary embodiments can beapplied to the fourth exemplary embodiment.

According to the present disclosure, regarding movement of a positioninput to an arbitrary position in an input area, a portion to be atarget of processing for recognizing a shape of a movement locus can beidentified without reflecting the movement to scroll of a displayedscreen.

Other Embodiments

Embodiments of the present disclosure can also be realized by a computerof a system or apparatus that reads out and executes computer executableinstructions recorded on a storage medium (e.g., a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium) to perform the functions of one ormore of the above-described embodiment(s) of the present disclosure, andby a method performed by the computer of the system or apparatus by, forexample, reading out and executing the computer executable instructionsfrom the storage medium to perform the functions of one or more of theabove-described embodiment(s). The computer may comprise one or more ofa central processing unit (CPU), micro processing unit (MPU), or othercircuitry, and may include a network of separate computers or separatecomputer processors. The computer executable instructions may beprovided to the computer, for example, from a network or the storagemedium. The storage medium may include, for example, one or more of ahard disk, a random-access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), astorage of distributed computing systems, an optical disk (such as acompact disc (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), or Blu-ray Disc (BD)™),a flash memory device, a memory card, and the like.

While the present disclosure has been described with reference toexemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosure is notlimited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of thefollowing claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as toencompass all such modifications and equivalent structures andfunctions.

This application claims the benefit of priority from Japanese PatentApplication No. 2014-249425, filed Dec. 9, 2014, which is herebyincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

What is claimed is:
 1. An information processing apparatus comprising:an obtainment unit configured to obtain an input position input to aninput area; a display control unit configured to scroll at least aportion of an image displayed on a display screen in response tomovement of an input position obtained by the obtainment unit; and arecognition unit configured to, if a shape of at least a portion of alocus constituted of input positions input after a first condition issatisfied forms a predetermined figure among movement loci of the inputpositions obtained by the obtainment unit, recognize an instructioncorresponding to the figure, wherein, the display control unit does notscroll the image in response to movement of an input position inputafter the first condition is satisfied.
 2. The information processingapparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first condition is acondition that a long touch is performed in the input area.
 3. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 1, furthercomprising: a scroll control unit configured to determine whether thefirst condition is satisfied by the input position obtained by theobtainment unit, wherein the recognition unit determines whether a shapeof at least a portion of a locus constituted of input positions inputafter the scroll control unit determines that the first condition issatisfied forms the predetermined figure corresponded to a plurality ofinstructions recognized by the information processing apparatus.
 4. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein thescroll control unit determines that the first condition is satisfied ifinformation of a plurality of input positions periodically obtained bythe obtainment unit indicates that a touch in the input area remainswithin a predetermined range for a predetermined time period immediatelyafter a start thereof.
 5. The information processing apparatus accordingto claim 3, wherein the second condition is a condition that a length ofa stroke is shorter than a predetermined length.
 6. The informationprocessing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the recognition unitexcludes a portion further satisfying a second condition among lociconstituted of input positions input after the first condition issatisfied from a target of processing for determining whether the targetforms the predetermined figure corresponded to a plurality ofinstructions recognized by the information processing apparatus.
 7. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein thesecond condition is a condition regarding a length of a stroke firstinput among loci constituted of input positions input after the firstcondition is satisfied.
 8. The information processing apparatusaccording to claim 6, wherein the second condition is a conditionregarding a degree of bend of a stroke first input among lociconstituted of input positions input after the first condition issatisfied.
 9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,wherein the obtainment unit is an obtainment unit configured to obtain atouched position detected by a touch sensor in a period between when theinput area is touched with an object to when the object is released, andwherein the recognition unit determines whether a shape of at least aportion of a locus constituted of input positions input after the scrollcontrol unit determines that the first condition is satisfied forms thepredetermined figure corresponded to a plurality of instructionsrecognized by the information processing apparatus at a timing when theobject is released from the input area.
 10. The information processingapparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined figure is anyone of a plurality of dictionary data pieces corresponded to a pluralityof instructions recognized by the information processing apparatus, andeach of the plurality of dictionary data pieces includes one or morestrokes.
 11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,wherein the display control unit displays a movement locus of inputpositions periodically obtained by the obtainment unit on the displayscreen, and further changes at least any one of colors, brightness, andshades of the locus in response to that the first condition issatisfied.
 12. The information processing apparatus according to claim1, further comprising an identification unit configured to identify aninput position obtained after the first condition is satisfied in aseries of input positions obtained by the obtainment unit as an inputposition candidate constituting the predetermined figure, wherein therecognition unit determines whether a shape of a movement locus of inputpositions identified by the identification unit has the predeterminedfigure.
 13. The information processing apparatus according to claim 12,wherein the identification unit excludes a portion satisfying a secondcondition among input positions obtained by the obtainment unit afterthe first condition is satisfied by information regarding an inputposition obtained by the obtainment unit from an input positioncandidate constituting the predetermined figure.
 14. The informationprocessing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the identificationunit identifies an input position obtained by the obtainment unit afterthe first condition is satisfied by information other than coordinatesregarding an input position obtained by the obtainment unit as an inputposition candidate constituting the predetermined figure.
 15. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein, ifinformation regarding an input position obtained by the obtainment unitindicates that a touch is no longer detected in the input area, therecognition unit recognizes a shape of a locus constituted of inputpositions obtained during when the touch is detected after the firstcondition is satisfied.
 16. The information processing apparatusaccording to claim 13, wherein, based on a comparison of a shape of amovement locus of input positions identified by the identification unitand shapes of one or more figures constituted of one or more strokesstored in advance as a dictionary, the recognition unit recognizes theshape of the movement locus of the input positions identified by theidentification unit.
 17. The information processing apparatus accordingto claim 16, wherein, the recognition unit further recognizes aninstruction corresponding to a shape of a movement locus of inputpositions identified by the identification unit with respect to theinformation processing apparatus based on information stored as thedictionary.
 18. The information processing apparatus according to claim1, wherein if an input position obtained by the obtainment unitindicates that a long touch is input in the input area, theidentification unit identifies an input position obtained by theobtainment unit after the long touch as an input position candidateconstituting the predetermined figure.
 19. A method for controlling aninformation processing apparatus, the method comprising: obtaining aninput position input to an input area; scrolling at least a portion ofan image displayed on a display screen in response to movement of anobtained input position; if a shape of at least a portion of a locusconstituted of input positions input after a first condition issatisfied forms a predetermined figure among movement loci of theobtained input positions, recognizing an instruction corresponding tothe figure; and not scrolling the image in response to movement of aninput position input after the first condition is satisfied.
 20. Astorage medium storing a method for controlling an informationprocessing apparatus, the method comprising: obtaining an input positioninput to an input area; scrolling at least a portion of an imagedisplayed on a display screen in response to movement of an obtainedinput position; if a shape of at least a portion of a locus constitutedof input positions input after a first condition is satisfied forms apredetermined figure among movement loci of the obtained inputpositions, recognizing an instruction corresponding to the figure; andnot scrolling the image in response to movement of an input positioninput after the first condition is satisfied.